Gourmet News

ASAP.com, Unilever Form Partnership for Ice Cream Products

Published October 17, 2022

ASAP.com, the on-demand delivery brand for Waitr Holdings Inc. reached a national partnership with Unilever, one of the world’s leading suppliers of ice cream products, including Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Good Humor, Magnum ice cream and more.

The agreement calls for ASAP.com to deliver frozen treats to its consumers. Unilever will coordinate with ASAP’s existing restaurant partners to help add ice cream to their menus. The partnership provides new options for customers, as well as a new revenue stream for restaurants.

ASAP will also deliver from The Ice Cream Shop, Unilever’s virtual storefront, featuring fan-favorite products from beloved ice cream brands Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, Magnum ice cream and Talenti. Customers can order from The Ice Cream Shop at more than 2,000 locations across the country, including the New York Tri-State Area, where ASAP just debuted.

“Adding the top ice cream brands to the ASAP platform will be a tasty treat for our loyal customers,” said Carl Grimstad, CEO and chairman of the board of ASAP, Inc. “And going into partnership with Unilever is another high-profile implementation of our new business model to ‘deliver anything’ to consumers, same day, from any type of business.”

“We are thrilled to begin this partnership with ASAP as Unilever continues to expand the many ways customers across the country can enjoy our frozen treats,” said Russel Lilly, general manager, North American Ice Cream. “It’s not only exciting to further grow The Ice Cream Shop’s customer base with ASAP, but we are also honored to build out restaurant partners’ menus with our variety of offerings to bring something sweet to every customer.”

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SpartanNash Promotes Tayebi to EVP, Chief Strategy & Information Officer

Published October 17, 2022

Food solutions company SpartanNash has promoted Masiar Tayebi to executive vice president, chief strategy and information officer. Tayebi was hired in April 2021 as EVP, chief strategy officer.

“SpartanNash is more focused than ever on being the most customer-focused, innovative food solutions company,” said SpartanNash CEO Tony Sarsam. “Our innovation through technology goes hand-in-hand with the overall strategy of the company, making Masiar a natural leader for the IT function moving forward. He brings more than two decades of experience connecting strategy, technology, innovation and execution to drive growth and transformational change.

Prior to SpartanNash, Tayebi served as global head of corporate strategy and business development at Whirlpool Corporation. In that role, he was responsible for strategy and acquisitions, including Yummly, a leading technology food platform offering online grocery delivery. After acquiring Yummly in 2017, Masiar served as chief operating officer at Yummly, executing Whirlpool’s innovation growth strategy and tripling users to 23 million.

Previously, Tayebi was an executive director at UBS focused on strategy, M&A and transformational change. During his time at UBS, he served in various leadership positions, including Americas chief technology officer and global head of change management for its Asset Management division. Before joining UBS, Tayebi worked with various Fortune 500 clients on strategic initiatives during his time in management consulting.

Tayebi holds an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from Bentley University. He was named one of the University of Chicago Booth’s Top 15 Alumni in Tech.

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Giant Fundraiser: Grocer, Customers Raise $766K to Feed Children

Published October 12, 2022

Giant Food presents check to Baltimore County Schools to help address food insecurity among children.

Thanks to a Giant fundraiser, food insecure children in the Washington, D.C., area will be fed.

Giant Food, the leading D.C. regional grocery chain, has donated $765,977 to help address food insecurity among children within its local communities. From June 16 through August 7 of 2022, Giant held its brand-new customer giving campaign, Nourishing Our Youth. During the campaign, Giant customers were given the option to round up their grocery purchase to the nearest dollar to donate to their local public schools’ food programs.

All of the proceeds from the Giant fundraiser were donated to local school districts so they may use the funds to best serve their community and support meal programs such as such covering outstanding student meal debt, expanding food distribution programs and building on-campus food pantries.

“We all know that children need nutritious meals to grow, learn and thrive. But too many children across our region struggle to receive a decent meal at lunch when attending school,” said Felis Andrade, director of external communications & community relations. “Through Giant’s Nourishing Our Youth program, we can give much-needed funds to school districts within our region to support their meal programs. We are incredibly grateful to our outstanding customers for their philanthropic support and thrilled to be able to donate these funds to our local school districts.”

According to Feeding America, over 9 million children, or 1 in 8, faced hunger in 2021. Research has also consistently demonstrated that good nutrition and the ability to learn are intrinsically connected. School food programs are critical to ensuring many children receive regular meals and Giant is committed to continuing to support food insecurity efforts for children throughout its region.

“Christina School District is beyond excited and thankful to have partnered with Giant Food for the 2022 Nourishing Our Youth Round Up Program,” said Andrea Solge, registered dietitian and child nutrition supervisor for the Christina School District. “Their generosity will assist in the fight against hunger within the Christina School District. There are many benefits to this program, but most importantly, providing increased access to meals by serving free breakfast and lunch daily to our students. Christina School District is grateful for this opportunity and for Giant Food’s support to fight against hunger in our community.”

Funds are being distributed to schools throughout October. For more information about the program, email NourishingOurYouth@cranecommunications.com.

Giant Food annually donates over 4.5 million pounds of food and $1 million in cash contributions to its five Feeding America food bank partners in an effort to eliminate hunger within its region. Giant offers an extensive account of its efforts throughout 2021 across areas of charitable giving, education, partnerships, innovation and development to be a Better Neighbor, which means being a Better Place to Shop and Better Place to Work within the greater DMV region, in its Better Neighbor Report. To view Giant’s Better Neighbor Report, visit https://giantfood.com/pages/better-neighbor-report.

For more information about Giant Food and all of its community giving programs, visit giantfood.com.

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